


Take it Slow

by Lukas17



Series: The Royal Palace [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/M, Multi, Polyamory, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-14
Updated: 2017-09-14
Packaged: 2018-12-29 21:39:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12093963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lukas17/pseuds/Lukas17
Summary: Prompto thought that royal parties were just a venue to brag about how royal you were. Turns out he was only half right.





	Take it Slow

He woke up to the commotion of people’s feet stomping on the floor and several voices echoing down the halls. They carried a feeling of urgency, but not danger. Prompto stuck his head out of the door to see a commander talking with Noctis outside of his door. Several people were carrying luggage and discussing an itinerary. He brought his head back in and didn’t dare approach until all the men had cleared out and Noctis was alone outside his door.

“What’s up?”

Noctis ran his fingers through his hair. “I need to go down to Accordo.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.” He whined. “Something needs to get settled, I don’t know how long it’ll take.”

Prompto wrapped his arm around Noctis’ shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll be fine Noct. What’s the worst that could happen?”

Noctis pinched Prompto’s side. “Don’t jinx me!”

They didn’t get much time to speak before Noctis had to leave. Noctis would be traveling for twelve hours, and Prompto had to begin work in three hours. He got a kiss goodnight before he went back to bed.

He woke up to an emptier palace. A good chunk of the guard was gone, and he had to cover some other people’s duties in the morning so everything kept running. But Captain Laurel would not let the sudden loss of his men cut in with either his normal training routine or the preparations for the party to be held later that week. So it somehow fell solely on Prompto to check all of the weapons in storage and bring them in for repairs. Lunch was cut short by an emergency practice drill, and then he spent the evening watching the camera feed of the gardens. The day was so busy that he hardly noticed when he was off duty. Jezebel had to remind him to leave ten minutes after six. As busy as the day was he wasn’t tired, though his body was sore and his eyes were dry.

He didn’t know where Luna was. She didn’t leave with Noctis, and she had nothing scheduled outside castle grounds, but he hadn’t heard about her all day. He checked the library, the sunroom, and her workroom but she clearly hadn’t entered any of them that day or there would’ve been books and papers scattered on the ground. She wasn’t outside in her garden so after he checked there he headed for her room.

Photos were scattered everywhere on the ground, in the corner was a dirty plate and a slowly drying coffee stain in the wood. Luna sat in the middle of a pile of photos, construction paper, and strings slaving away at a cork board. Her hair was uncombed and she still hadn’t changed from her nightclothes. Not the image he usually associated with her.

“Hiiii Luna.” He said, “Whatcha up to?”

“I’m planning the dinner.” She said simply.

“I thought planning was already finished.”

“Oh, planning is never done. I got a letter this morning from Duke Carnelle reminding me that he wasn’t speaking with his uncle. Then Lady Friel requested to be sat next to her new beau, and Senator Jean’s son is allergic to iris’ so I had to call the the florist and discuss a new arrangement, then I had to make sure the caterer knew to make the cheesecake vegan and that was before I even had breakfast.”

She sighed, “Party’s are not fun Prompto.”

“That’s what you’ve been doing all day?”

“It’s what I’ve been doing all day.” She glanced at him over her shoulder. “Close the door please?”

He shut the door behind him. Once it clicked closed Luna stripped out of her nightgown, and Prompto immediately got down on the floor to pick up the papers closest to him.

“I’m going to take a shower, and if you’re hungry we can go out to eat.” She shut the door to the bathroom. “Don’t worry about the papers Prompto the maids will pick them up.”

He dropped the papers when he heard the water run.

Luna didn’t take long in the shower. He spent the ten minutes lounging on the bed listening to his heartbeat return to the normal. Then she came out in an even lesser state of dress and he immediately rolled over to hide his face in the sheets.

“You and Noctis are such prudes.” She joked.

“I can’t help it.” He whined, “I’m a gentleman.”

“A gentleman can handle some skin can’t he?”

“Not this one.”

“You’re a nun is what you are.” She ran her fingers through his hair, “Come on now get up. I’m decent.”

She had changed into a pair of blue jeans and a green shirt, hair pulled back in a simple ponytail. He shimmied off the bed and slipped his feet back in his shoes.

“So where do you want to go Your Majesty?”

“La Toque.” She said as they left the room. “Do you have work tomorrow?”

“Nah, it’s my day off.”

“Oh that’s good.” She pulled out her phone and began texting someone. “I’m just going to let them know to set out some drinks for us for when we get there. Do you like Riesling?”

Luna seemed eager to get out of her room and take her mind off of things. On the car ride there she talked to him about her garden, a show she was watching, some gossip she heard. It was all very distracting until the sat down in their private room with the one way glass in a floor above other patrons. Their waiter uncorked the wine for them while they looked over the menu.

“Order whatever you want Prompto, I’ll eat anything.”

“Glad to hear, I’ll order something with anchovies then.”

Her face went tight, “That sounds great Prompto.”

He chuckled, “I’m just kidding. “

There wasn’t a wide selection of things to choose from and he couldn’t even imagine what they all might taste like. After minimal inputs from Luna he chose the food at random and let her choose the wine, which seemed like the smart choice. He was really enjoying the riesling she’d ordered for them.

After their order was taken Luna immediately launched into a tale about a duchess she’d had tea with last month. According to her the evening began terribly, the duchess was late and by the time she’d gotten there it was too warm for tea. But Luna took it anyway at the duchess’ insistence. The woman then spent the evening telling outlandish tales about the local nobility. Marquess Rouge had hired assassins to kill Noctis, the Earl Bernard was plotting to sabotage some of Luna’s investments. She then asked for a loan, and immediately stormed off after Luna had firmly declined. She told the story with such enthusiasm that Prompto didn’t notice the waiter come in.

“Your first course.” He said, “Roasted baby beets with mascarpone and a house-made furikake, and a Rheingau to drink.”

The dishes were pretty, almost too pretty to eat. Prompto wanted to pull out his phone to take a picture. He didn’t, however, when he figured that would be a new photography low for him. Lower than all the pictures he had of his friends knocked on in the middle of battle

When the waiter left Luna immediately pushed her glass of wine closer to him. “Why don’t you have it, I don’t particularly care for this type.”

Prompto would have protested, but Luna immediately switched to another story about yet another royal member. This time of a Duke caught in the tool shed with one of the gardners. He found it especially hilarious because he had caught the end of the incident when the Duke had ran across the grounds and through one of the gardens while Prompto was on shift watching the camera feed. He didn’t know what to make of it at the time, the added context did make the story more funny.

Their next round was some fish dish, he didn’t really catch the long name, paired with a chardonnay and Luna’s anger at the last episode of a drama she was watching. She waved her arms in the air and spoke about her feelings of betrayal in great detail. Prompto silently finished off his course as he listened to her.

It was the third round was when he noticed something was off. His face felt a little numb and his vision fuzzy. Luna was still talking, but at some point he’d failed to keep track of what she was saying. He’d also managed to drop a tortellini on his pants, though he couldn’t figure out when.

“Prompto.” Luna said, suddenly serious. Her hand came up to rub at his bicep. “I have something to ask you.”

“Hmmm?”

“Noctis likely won’t be back by Friday.” She began, “The man he must meet with is an absolute nightmare, some agreements were rejected by the senate, some other nonsense...”

“Mmmhmm.”

“So I was wondering if… you would accompany me to the dinner on Friday.”

Prompto almost didn’t understand the words she was saying, they got caught up in the fog around his head. But understand them he eventually did, and he immediately jabbed a finger in her general direction.

“You ssssnake!” he slurred, “You-you’re evil. Can’t get a guy druuuunk and then do-do that! Do the-the-the bad words talking!”

“I’m doing no such thing.”

“Prove iiiit!”

“You caught on. If you caught on then I’m not tricking you.”

He slammed his hand on his plate, coating the cracks of his fingers in chocolate. “Snaaaaake!”

“Why don’t we discuss this in the car?”

\---

He wasn’t surprised when he woke up with a headache, but he was surprised when he looked up and saw that he was in Luna and Noctis’ room. He’d been stripped down to his undershirt and his boxers at some point. When he could move his arms he tried to reach out to see if someone else was nearby and found nothing.

It took him a moment to build up the energy he needed, and when he did he immediately felt nauseous. But this wasn’t the first time he’d woken up hungover and sick, and he knew for a fact that he wouldn’t throw up. This was nothing compared to the eight shots he’d had when he came of age.

He gingerly set both feet on the floor and stood up, then took a step forward. Then another. He tested walking around the room until he felt a little more confident in his physical health. He found his clothes folded up on a chair and went to put them on.

His shirt was halfway over his head when Luna walked in, looking very put together in her blue skirt and white tank.

“You’re looking good considering last night.”

“Thanks.” He said a little sarcastically, “What did we do anyway?”

“You agreed to accompany me to the party this Friday. Then you ordered a Jungle Juice, and we had to take you back.”

“That… doesn’t sound right.” Prompto could honestly say that he’d never in his life ordered a drink with a mixer in it.

She shrugged, “I convinced you to try it. Sorry, I didn’t know it would be that strong.”

Prompto wanted to contest the accuracy of that story, but he had no memory of the night before. A little of it came back when he looked at his phone and saw that he’d apparently had the coordination to send a selfie of him and Luna to Noctis, but the words under it were just a bunch of keystrokes, one of which autocorrected to tree. Noctis replied back with a selfie of himself in a meeting room captioned “Yeah I’m having fun too.”

“We have to get you fitted for a suit.” Luna said, “Do you need to take a shower?”

“Oh- uh - yeah, I think I do. Just a quick one.”

“Well use this shower, if we don’t get there soon we might not get it on time.”

Getting a tuxedo done was a little more involved than Prompto had originally thought. When they’d arrived at the shop a little, old man ushered him into a big, open space where various fabrics and designs were on display. The old man spent at least ten minutes taking measurements of every limb, and then another seven doing it again.

“Let’s see, let’s see.” The man thumbed through the various sample jackets on the rack. “One button should do fine. Fitted cut. Soft shoulders.”

He plucked a black jacket and a red shirt from the rack. “Try these on.”

Luna and the man discussed the colors as Prompto tried to delicately slip a silk lined suit jacket on without tearing a hole. Not too bright, Luna said, or it’d wash him out. While the old man brought up that since black suits were a little drab adding color was necessary for someone with his complection. Prompto didn’t offer his input, just standing under the bright lights was taxing. He walked out and let them fiddle over the finer details like what shade of red for the pocket square, which devolved into a hurried bickering over two shades that were exactly the same.

The man, in an entirely stunning turn of events, won the argument. He left to to grab the paperwork for their order.

“Prompto stand still for a moment. I want to send this to Noctis.”

“Luuuunaaaa.” he whined, “I’ve been standing still all day.”

“We’ve been here an hour.”

He pouted as she positioned her head so that she could get both her face and most of his body in the frame. Hopefully Noctis would feel his misery through the photograph and come back early.

“You do look good Prompto. I don’t think they ever properly fitted you for that guard uniform.”

“Can I change now?”

“Mmhmm.”

Soon they were back on the street with absolutely no clothing to bring back. He almost wondered what the point was.

“Alright, time for some food for you.” She said. “You might feel better.”

Prompto normally didn’t eat when he had a hangover to avoid the same kind of binging that he’d partaken in the night before. But sitting at a cafe and eating a sandwich did seem to put him back in balance much more quickly. He was much more awake for Luna’s last fitting for her dress. A long, white number with yellow accents. He made sure to catch a picture for Noctis before they were done.

\---

The day of the dinner Prompto woke up in his usual room and went about his morning shift as normal. But the second he was off Luna swept him away back downtown to grab his suit for the dinner. Prompto avoided any complaining throughout the entire final alteration, which he felt was quite the achievement with the man forcing him to try on four different pairs of socks before letting them go. They had four hours until the ball started, which Prompto thought would be more than enough time for them to get ready. Only to be told that was not the case.

Mrs. Freya was the royal hairdresser, a woman he’d only spoken to once in passing since his arrival. All she needed was a five minute look over to pinpoint every little insecurity he’d ever had about his physical appearance. She gave instructions to two assistants and the two got to work, first with having him strip down and get into some sort of bath. He would have enjoyed washing up in the large, warm bath, but then the assistants came into the room. One yanked out his foot and began rubbing at the heel with some kind of tool while the other dumped some of the water on his head and began scrubbing at his hair.

The process didn’t stop when his feet and hair were washed, he had to dry off and get dressed not in normal clothes but in a robe. One of the most uncomfortable pieces of clothing ever to be invented. They kept him in it for at least an hour as they trimmed up his fingernails, poked at his feet a bit more, poked at his face, and put every known product in his hair. He couldn’t help wonder what the point was for, when he caught a glance of himself in the mirror he looked almost exactly the same as before the entire mess began.

The hairdressers needed to take a break before finishing the last few steps so he and Luna were allowed out to stretch their legs. She came into the waiting room with her hair done in an elaborate up do with little pieces of crystals and her makeup subtly layered. Prompto felt his tongue reach for the back of his throat.

“You look good.” She reached up to cup his cheek and feel at how smooth they made his skin feel.

“Thanks. You look good too.”

She snorted and took her hand from his face. “It takes a lot of time and money to look this good. I can’t wait for them to cram me into some spanx so I can be a real Queen.”

“And all this time I thought it was your grace and charm that made you a real Queen.”

“Heavens no Prompto, it’s a gallon of crisco and some fishing line.”

He pressed amused kisses into her neck, but the only had the few minutes before he was back in the room letting one of the women put his tie in a fancy knot and roll a lint roller down his back.

“You look very handsome.” One of the girls said, “You’ll blend right in.”

“Yeah, until I say something.”

She smiled, “Well, there’ll be plenty of entertainment there. You might not have time to say anything.”

The first few guests had arrived near the end of their preparations, but not enough people were there for Luna to make her entrance, so they spent time on the upper floor gossiping about the people they could see from their perch.

“That’s my cousin twice removed. She’s always showing up to these events with her dog sparkles, the thing is a nightmare.” She said, “I told Jenevieve to remove it as soon as that woman put it down.”

The dog’s yapping filled the hall despite the woman’s tight grip on it. The man she was speaking to kept a firm arm's length between himself and her.

“Why does she keep it around?”

“Because she can’t keep a husband. Oh, there’s Govener York, and his wife. What is she wearing?” Prompto snorted at the sight of a bright pink princess gown.

“It looks like she ripped her dress out of a children’s picture book.”

Luna nearly barked out a laugh, but covered her mouth just in time. “Oh my gosh, that’s exactly what she looks like. Quick, take a picture for Noctis.”

He pulled out his phone and snapped two pictures, one of her alone and another of her speaking to the cousin with the dog. Almost immediately Noctis sent a picture back of his advisor at one of his desks drooling over some sort of document.

A servant cleared her throat. “Ma’am, it is time for your entrance.”

Luna coached Prompto on proper etiquette on the quick walk to the staircase. It basically boiled down to smile, agree, and try to enjoy himself. Prompto tried to keep that in mind as they made the descent.

The last time he had to do some sort of public event he’d fainted on stage and one of his teachers had to help him off. He’d honestly expected that to happen again, but instead he’d felt unnervingly calm even as his name was announced. Luna gave a short speech thanking everyone for attending, then they walked down to mingle.

He and Luna were separated when she was accosted by two princesses from a nearby island kingdom. Prompto immediately separated himself to wander around the edge of the party and snoop on the other people who were attending. For the most part everyone was on their best behavior and keeping their idle chit-chat as boring as possible.

Things didn’t get interesting until an hour into the party. People had finally settled into the evening and were dancing to the music. Others had made a few trips to the bar and were becoming much more loose lipped. Luna had retreated to entertain a few dignitaries for the majority of the evening, and Prompto had found plenty of new gossip to share with her for when she got back. The party had migrated a tad to the gardens as the night cooled down, Prompto ordered himself a whiskey neat and made his way out to observe the other guests outside.

In the corner was a Duchess with her four lady friends speaking about a local charity event they were all planning on attending. Duke Williams was drunk, and began to loudly tell the tale of how his eldest son had killed a wyvern with his bare hands. He used his glass like a sword and waved it around with each word. Lady Maine was well on her way to being the seventh mistress of Countess LaCroix. And through it all the cello player was counting the minutes until he could go home.

“Guardsman Prompto.” Jezebel stage whispered from the edge of the entertainment area. “Can I see you a moment?”

Jezebel gestured for him to follow and so he did, at first worried that this was something serious. But she instead put her finger over her mouth to tell him to be quiet and led him out towards the west garden maintenance shed. She had a hand covering her grin as she pointed towards one of the small windows for him to peek in through.

It wasn’t what he had imagined. Duke Williams’ son, Chevalier Deponte, Chevalier Tanner, and Mistress Scarlett had converted a wheelbarrow into a desk and were playing cards with hurried hands. Chevalier Deponte laid down the last card with a triumphant smack, and the other three dropped theirs down in defeat. Duke Williams’ son immediately began arguing with Deponte, gesturing angrily to the cards that had been laid down.

“It looks like he’s three hundred thousand gil in the hole. You see in the corner? Mistress Scarlett has one of his rings.”

Prompto couldn’t help it, he had to take a step back just to have a good laugh and nearly spill his drink on the grass.

“Oh my god, I can’t believe this is what all these people get up to. It’s like high school prom all over again.”

“Right? I love working guard on party nights. There are six people in one of the bathrooms smoking, and Lady Krem is wandering through the east rooms without any pants on.”

“Oh my god.” He wiped a tear from his eye. “I’m so glad I agreed to this.”

“Is that what you call it?”

“Yeah….?”

“I seem to recall you were against it at the restaurant.”

“What restaurant?”

“The one you and Luna went to.” She crossed her arms and let a smirk play across her face, “Where you got drunk at after she fed you a bunch of wine and asked you to come with her to this. You weren’t amenable to the idea.”

That feeling in his stomach returned. He couldn’t recall the night with any sort of clarity, but the way guardswoman Jezebel described it sounded much more right.

“She didn’t tell you?”

“Nope, no she did not. That snake.”

“Aw, don’t be like that. You’re probably having a better time then she is right now.”

Prompto didn’t want to admit that she had a point, but she did have a point. Several people had requested an audience with Luna well into the night and she hadn’t had a chance to stand around and mingle like he had. Being mad sounded nice, but he couldn’t make himself feel that way.

Jezebel promised to let him know the outcome of the card game and he went back to the party area to refill his glass and catch the end of Duke Williams’ grandiose tale where his son valiantly saved three children from a burning building making him almost wish he had stuck around for the middle part. More people were laughing now that the night was in it’s upswing. He was asked to dance by the husband to a Countess and watch as the woman’s face turned red when it turned out he actually wasn’t half bad at dancing.

The backroom meetings Luna had to partake in came to an end near the end of the evening when most people were tired or choosing who to go home with. She came out of the room looking just as beautiful as before, but not nearly as happy. He took her hand and led her outside to dance to the cello.

“How’s your night been?”

She sighed, “Successful.”

“You don’t look too happy about that.”

“I am, it’s just tiring. How has your night been?”

“Pretty fun actually. I have so many things to tell you.” He wrapped his hands more tightly around her waist. “But, you know you didn’t have to trick me to get me out here.”

She rest her cheek on his shoulder, “I know it was wrong. I just didn’t want to be here alone. It was nice to know that you were waiting for me.”

They were slowly finding themselves more and more alone as the party wrapped up and the guests left. The guards were making their final sweep waking up and kicking out any stragglers they found, but they just focused on slowly moving with the music. At midnight the cello player put down his instrument and the evening was wrapped up in a gentle silence.

Luna got up on her toes to lay a red kiss on his cheek. “Do you want to go to bed?”

She popped a button on his jacket when they made it inside, then one on his shirt at the base of the stairs, another when they were halfway up. He carefully pulled out the pins in her hair and let them make little tings as they landed on the staircase. His jacket was dropped three feet from their door as she kicked off her shoes.

There weren’t many words he could use to describe being with Luna. Euphoric certainly was one. Exhilarating another. But they didn’t describe how good it felt to connect with another person, to connect with Luna, so intimately.

They didn’t go to sleep until well past midnight, but he still felt well rested and relaxed when they woke up the next morning. The curtains were closed and Luna was yawning herself awake.

Both of them looked messy. Luna’s hair was going in every direction but down, she had sleep lines dented in her cheek, and her makeup was smeared over both of their faces. He found it endearing in the most embarrassing way possible. Almost as embarrassing as realizing that he understood all of those stupid love songs they played on the radio now.

“Rise and shine your highness.”

She let out a big yawn again, “No. I don’t want to.”

“Well then you have to get off. I have to go run.”

A whine, “Why? That’s stupid.”

“If you want me to keep those abs you were so entertained by then I need to.”

“Fine, but don’t leave just yet.” She rolled over and grabbed her phone from the table. “We have to send a picture to Noctis.”

Prompto held the phone up high to take the picture which quickly turned to multiple shots as Luna went from kissing his cheek to his neck to his collarbone. Eventually he had to stop her so he could get out of bed and go on his run. On his way out he soaked the toy they used in cleaning solution and searched high and low for his underwear, but conceded that they would just have to be found after they’d cleaned up a little.

The party area had been cleaned by the staff overnight. Prompto went for his run then inspected lost items. Things that couldn’t be identified were thrown away and the owners for the rest were contacted. Though, according to Jezebel, they rarely had people wanting to reclaim anything.

Noctis arrived back right before dinner, which Prompto only heard about through the other guards. It didn’t matter much, he was only halfway through his shift and he was certain that Noctis would pass out for twelve hours anyway. Prompto ended up responding to a call of three kids trying to hop the fence, and then got an hour long lecture on the importance of filing such paperwork on the incident correctly by his captain. When he was let off at ten he almost contemplated heading to his room and passing out too, but he decided to at least see how Noctis was doing.

Luna and Noctis’ room, however, was locked. He had a key, but a locked door was unusual. There was an unspoken rule that even if the door was unlocked guards didn’t enter, and Prompto couldn’t tell in this moment if he should abide by that rule or pull out his friend card and unlock the door. He lifted up his right fist and knocked twice.

He heard a low, short noise that he couldn’t quite make out.

Another knock, “Noct. Luna. You guys in there?”

There were a few more faint noises that did not at all prepare him for when the door swung open just wide enough for Noctis to grab his shirt and pull him into the room.

The door was locked behind him.


End file.
